I Got You
by nambnb
Summary: AU-FF-Prompt: Let's pretend it's past WWI and Barnaby had fought in it as a German officer. And let's pretend the Japanese, being on the winner's side, set food to Germany for some reason. Let's further pretend due to the inflation their foreign money is the only currency worth anything now. And Barnaby's only option to get his hands on that money is the oldest profession there is.


"Er sagt, er will dich auch mal ausprobieren."

The man who functioned as some kind of a translator of the group of Japanese army officers pointed to the doorframe and Barnaby looked over his head to find amber eyes and a gentle smile resting on him. Maybe that guy in the doorframe was a higher ranking officer than the others if they were willing to give preference to what he asked them to do. Barnaby shrugged inwardly and decided for the rank of 'general' for now and then gave him a closer look, prompting him to freeze on the spot as he recognized the tanned face belonging to the older man that had helped him out in his greatest hour of despair once.

They hadn't spoken much then, hell he didn't even know his name and he hadn't cared for that by then. This Japanese man had just happened to pass by the moment Barnaby had stumbled into his bombed-out old home and had found his parents' dead bodies lying on the floor. And Barnaby, who had faught through hell and had come back home alive somehow, broke out in tears over their loss. Not caring for his military title worth shit now, his home in pieces or the fact that no bank account he once possessed would provide him with any valuable money to survive from now on, his only thoughts were directed at the fact that his parents had to be among the millions of people dying in this useless war. Life was the most valuable good after a war, most in serving as an emotional support for the survivers of this ordeal. What joy could it bring to a soldier to come back home from the frontlines and embrace his family and what desperation awaited him when he found his loved ones buried among debris. Barnaby hadn't known how to move on as he sat there inmidst the ruins of his house next to the lifeless bodies of his parents. It had been the Japanese man watching the scene of another man breaking down at the sight of his loss, who had touched him by the shoulder and held a sheet out to him. It was a dirty linen but the dead wouldn't care what they were covered with. The Japanese man had taken his hat and spoken a few words Barnaby hadn't understood then, but the sound of his voice was soothing in the silence that engulfed the whole place. He even managed to find two shovels and they were able to bury Barnaby's parents below the earth of their former garden. The Japanese had vanished after a last pat on Barnaby's shoulder then, but his sign of humanity had meant very much to the young man.

All of these memories resurfaced in Barnaby as he held the gaze of the other man in the doorframe before he looked bashfully to the ground and couldn't bear the shame welling up inside of him anymore. He was in the Japanese quarters, not to look for his former emotional benefactor, but to sell his body for foreign money, the only currency worth anything in his destroyed home. Aligning oneself with the enemy had gotten a whole new meaning for him. He had to come to the brink of starvation before he had been able to swallow his pride and took that step towards surviving in the country that had lost the battle. There was seldom a minute he didn't try to outweigh despising himself for what he was doing over survival, but the hunger always won.

And he had gotten frightfully good at seducing men and women, military men being more useful since they had the foreign money, whereas a German housewife only had a sparse meal to offer he always felt bad for her to share with him.

Confronted with all of that, Barnaby's cheeks reddened by the minute by the thought that his casual acquaintance would be the next for him to infatuate. But he couldn't turn him down. So after gritting his teeth and swallowing hard once, he threw his head back and let his blonde curls whip around his neck in an alluring gesture since he knew the Japanese men loved his hair so much. He then produced a smile on his lips and straightened his back as he stood up to restore some of his confidence before he walked over to the man, who had said he wanted to 'try him out' as his translator had formulated it.

They climbed the stairs of the rundown grey building and found an empty room with a sparse yet unimpaired interior, including a bed and a chair. The unknown Japanese general sat down in the creaking chair and indicated for Barnaby to come closer. So not the bed yet? Well fine, Barnaby took some steps closer to the older man. He couldn't be that much older than himself on closer inspection, maybe ten or fifteen years, it was impossible to tell with his face that seemed saddened by the war, but he was way younger than his usual older-men-clients. As he stood as close infront of the other man as the other's sitting position would allow, the Japanese got hold of Barnaby's hands and examined them. A shiver ran down Barnaby's spine as he witnessed the gesture. The other man seemed very absorbed by his hands as he turned them here and there and then gently stroked them with his fingers.

What did the other man hope to find in his hollow palms, in his roughed up thin fingers with dirt below his nails in lack of enough soap every day to clean himself the way he wished he could? Oh he was clean, yes, as clean as his situation would allow and he did invest part of his hard-earned money in possibilities to take a shower, when he found a functioning one, before he visited the high ranking officers at least. A good impression could never hurt. Besides, the healthier he looked the greater the chance they would think he had no sexually transmitted diseases and choose him as their prostitute for the day. Well, Barnaby sincerely hoped he didn't catch himself anything nasty yet, though he couldn't be sure, but worrying about it wouldn't make things any better.

His worry had reached a state that he sighed to his own thoughts and made the Japanese general look up to him from his hands. He said something in his foreign language Barnaby didn't understand, but then reached his hand to stroke Barnaby's cheek and smiled. Oh, maybe he looked scared to him and he was the kind of guy to try easing their sex partners' minds before the actual act. Barnaby tried for a smile, but his brows still must have seemed worried, so the other man simply kissed his knuckles. Woah was that cheesy, Barnaby's ears reddened. Not to mention that the other's chin-beard somewhat tickled his fingers.

"Onamae wa nan desu ka?", he asked.

"Was?" Barnaby didn't understand him

"Onamae wa...?" He gestured to himself. "Ore wa Kotetsu." And then he pointed at Barnaby. "Onamae wa nan desu ka?"

Barnaby guessed he must have asked him for his name since the Japanese had shortened his sentence to a word sounding similar to the word 'Name' in German in between and intruduced himself.

"Barnaby."

"Ba...?"

He spelled it out for him: "Bar-na-by."

"Baru-na-bi?"

Yeah, somehing like that... Barnaby nodded with a strained smile. Why couldn't this guy speak English? It was way more easy to understand than Asian language, since it was more familiar to German. And what should Barnaby make out of this situation of intruducing yourself by name? And was 'Kotetsu' his surname or last name? You could never tell with these Japanese. But who cared, he would call him by any name he wanted as long as he paid for his service.

The general in question still didn't seem to have any interest for the bed in the room though, as he still rolled Barnaby's name under his tongue trying to get the right ring out of it.

"Baru-na-bi... Ba-na-bi... Banna...bi... Banni."

What?

"Banni." He smiled, obviously happy for himself to have found a sound he liked.

Barnaby fumed. Was this guy serious? 'Banni'? Spoken like 'Bunny' from the Americans which meant rabbit? For real? Where and how did he resemble a rabbit for God's sake?

"Ich bin kein Hase!" There were things he could call him and others that were outright ridiculous!

Kotetsu didn't understand Barnaby's denial of the ridiculous nickname of course - no of course he didn't, so Barnaby slapped a hand to his face and shook his head, waving his hand to stop any arising argument. What did he have to endure for some goddamn money? Now he was even robbed off his name! Couldn't it be over with soon, please? He sighed heavily and looked into a still quizzical face, so he gave in in a more obvious way and put a hand to his chest, saying "Bunny" and nodded in consent. Clearly that gesture had made his client very happy since the other man grinned up to his ears. Barnaby even caught himself smiling back because the other's smile was so warm, before he recognized what he was doing.

So, hand-check done, names introduced. So what now? Bed?

Apparently not.

Kotetsu did rise from his seat but didn't usher Barnaby to the bed yet, instead he put a hand to the blonde's locks and let his hair flow through his fingers. He seemed entranced by the feeling and repeated the gesture a few times. Barnaby found it cute somehow but at the same time wished he would hurry up since he was not paid by hours but by person and staying longer here would mean to let some other possibilities to earn himself some money slip through his fingers for the day. The moment he thought that he grossed himself out. So that was what it came down to? Disgusting. He sighed again and again earned himself the attention of the other man. Amber eyes studied his face and a hand cupped his chin, a thumb brushed over his lips. Barnaby took the chance to nibble on the digit and looked up from lowered lashes to appeal to the other man - that had worked for most men at least. It didn't work with this Japanese officer, though. Quite the contrary, his client seemed upset and removed his hand from his face, then gestured over to the bed.

Finally, Barnaby thought as he strode over to the bed and laid down on his back. Americans sometimes liked him to ride them, but the Japanese liked it better if he took the submissive role of a woman they couldn't have for now. Kotetsu went over to the bed, too, but he shook his head and tried to raise him up again, so Barnaby took a sitting position with his legs dangling over the edge of the bed and the Japanese approved with a strong nod of his head. Okay, so was he supposed to suck the other man with him standing infront of him or what? The general did shrug out of his jacket after all, but then he didn't proceed to his pants, but laid down on the edge of the bed with his head placed in Barnaby's lap. The young man was baffled. What the heck did this guy expect him to do?

Kotetsu turned his head and looked up to him with a smile, then took one of Barnaby's hands and put it on top of his head in a stroking gesture, before closing his eyes.

Petting his head? That's what he wanted him to do? Really? Nobody else ever wanted something like comfort from him, so his hand laid on top of the soft black locks motionlessly for some more seconds, before he began his task of stroking that guy's hair. Was that the reason he wanted his hands to be clean? Barnaby didn't know what to make out of this, but running your fingers through someone else's hair was way more likeable than spreading your legs for another man.

Barnaby didn't know how long he spent caressing the older man's hair, but at some point he realized the other had fallen asleep and some time later he dozed off as well due to outright boredom and since he didn't dare to stand up and wake the other up. Barnaby once nearly collapsed forwards, but caught himself in the last moment and grabbed for all the pillows he could find (namely two of them since it was a marriage bed) and stuffed them behind his back to have som kind of support behind himself before he drifted to sleep as well.

An unknown amount of time passed before Kotetsu began to struggle in his sleep, breaking into perspiration and grunting before he jerked awake with a yell, waking Barnaby in the process, who looked around in irritation. But nobody had come in and it was quiet and the only person besides the blonde in the room was the Japanese general, who shivered and screamed and shot terrified looks all around the room. Not knowing what else to do, Barnaby got hold of the other man's head again and resumed his stroking of the other man's hair, while simultanously rocking him like a frightened child. Kotetsu stared into the grey room with torn open eyes and tears began to spill, wetting Barnaby's chest. Barnaby tried to hum a tune, anything that would sound halfway soothing until the other man's tension finally subsided under the blonde's efforts. Kotetsu dug his face into Barnaby's lap, more into his belly, and hugged him tightly by the waist.

Now Barnaby had an idea what the other man had wanted from him. It was a thing not even sex with a woman could give to a soldier who had seen war: consolation. Barnaby understood. He had been out there in the fields, had seen his friends and countless of his men die from being riddled with bullets, from starvation, from being ripped to shreds by contact mines, from corroding lungs due to poison gas. Death had many faces during war, one of it uglier than the next. Barnaby had only survived by a hair's breadth with only a handful of his soldiers, who had not much life left in them physically and in the spirited kind of way.

Maybe that Japanese officer had seen similar atrocities, had lost his friends or his men. The possibility was high, but Barnaby didn't know. All he did know was that this man clinging to his body must have dreamed of something horrible and it had shaken him to an extent of emotional outburst Barnaby didn't know a Japanese could muster, seeing as they were very reserved on their feelings and didn't let any emotions slip carelessly under normal circumstances.

A look out of the window revealed that it was dark outside, so it must be night by now. Barnaby felt a yawn well up from inside of him and slapped a hand over his mouth to hide it. Kotetsu seemed to have recovered from his previous outburst of feelings and turned his head to look Barnaby in the eye again.

"Müde.", Barnaby simply said, but of course the Japanese didn't understand him, so he tried for English. "Sleepy."

Funnily enough he seemed to understand that since he nodded with a smile. Couldn't he just have said so before? But well, maybe he was as good with English as Barnaby was and understood only bits and pieces of it so no real progress to guessing what he wanted would have been achieved. But they seemed to agree on the fact that more sleep was in order and Kotetsu rose from Barnaby's lap to walk around the bed and slip below the blanket. Barnaby was not entirely sure he could stay yet, but Kotetsu patted the empty space next to him and Barnaby kicked off his shoes and settled beneath the bed cover as well. Not before he had grabbed for the pillows and given one to Kotetsu, though, which the Japanese answered with yet another smile.

Well, a nice bed to sleep in was not the worst choice for once, so Barnaby didn't object in lying beside the other man. The only thing that worried him was his payment. Was he in for sex in the morning or when exactly would he 'try him out' as the other Japanese downstairs had phrased it? Was consolation really everything this Kotetsu person had been loooking for?

Well, right now he looked Barnaby right in they eye. Maybe he liked the color of his eyes or studied the way his blonde hair had settled around his face. Not expecting anything to happen anymore, Barnaby closed his eyes, but ripped them open the second the other man had decided to cozy up and embraced Barnaby while burying his face in the younger man's chest. Maybe he wanted to hear his heartbeat - which skipped a beat at the sudden closeness - so he could be sure there was someone alive next to him. Whatever it was and as embarassing and uncalled for this situation had become, Barnaby sighed in submissiveness and put one arm around the other's shoulder before trying to get some sleep.


End file.
